---
title: "Gemini Leaderboard Ranking: Google's Days at #1"
date: 2026-09-30
url: https://modevc.com/charts/gemini-leaderboard-ranking-days-at-number-one/
keywords: ["gemini leaderboard ranking", "gemini 4 argon leaderboard", "llm leaderboard"]
publisher: Mode VC
---

# Gemini Leaderboard Ranking: Google's Days at #1

Google had zero days at #1 on Arena in 2024. Since mid-2025 its models have held the top for 227 days, and Gemini 4 Argon just took it back.

## Chart: Since Jan 2024, Google's models have been #1 on Arena for 227 of 1003 days, third among labs behind OpenAI (461) and Anthropic (252). All of it came from 24 Jun 2025 on.

Days each lab held the #1 spot on the Arena text board (overall), 1 Jan 2024 – 30 Sept 2026, summed over all its reigns. A reign runs from the first snapshot at #1 to the first snapshot with another lab at #1.

| Lab | Days at #1 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | Reigns | Longest reign | Models at #1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | 461 | 348 | 113 | 0 | 4 | 157 | gpt-4-0314, gpt-4-0125-preview, gpt-4-1106-preview, gpt-4-turbo-2024-04-09, gpt-4o-2024-05-13, chatgpt-4o-latest, o1-preview, o1-2024-12-17, chatgpt-4o-latest-20250326, o3-2025-04-16 |
| Anthropic | 252 | 16 | 0 | 236 | 2 | 236 | claude-3-opus-20240229, claude-opus-4-6-thinking, claude-opus-4-6, claude-opus-5-high, claude-opus-5-max, claude-fable-5.1-max, claude-opus-5.5-high |
| Google | 227 | 0 | 191 | 36 | 2 | 227 | gemini-2.5-pro, gemini-3-pro, gemini-4-argon-high |
| DeepSeek | 38 | 0 | 38 | 0 | 1 | 38 | deepseek-r1 |
| xAI | 25 | 2 | 23 | 0 | 2 | 23 | grok-2-2024-08-13, grok-3-preview-02-24 |

Note: Lab level: a reign continues while any model from the same lab is #1. For single-model reigns, see the post on how long the #1 model stays on top. Counting starts in Jan 2024 because this dataset's 2023 snapshots have no GPT-4 row before December and no Claude rows at all. Google's current reign started on 30 Sept 2026, the post date, so it adds 0 days so far. Snapshots are irregular, so totals are ±a few days.

## The signal

- **Launches:** [Gemini 4 Argon](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/gemini-4-argon/) (30 Sept 2026): "Frontier coding and enterprise model, first released only to vetted cyber defenders" (Google's description).
- **Arena:** 30 Sept 2026: gemini-4-argon-high is #1, 21 points above claude-opus-5.5-high; the confidence intervals do not overlap. It has 4,942 votes so far.
- **Launches:** Google has 7 entries in the launch feed since 6 Jul 2026, from Gemini 3.6 Flash to Gemini 4 Argon.

## The Mode read

Google announced Gemini 4 Argon today, first for a small group of vetted cyber defenders. The same day's Arena snapshot puts **gemini-4-argon-high** at #1, 21 points clear, outside the confidence intervals. That ends a 236-day run by Anthropic. How much of the Arena's history has belonged to Google?

Less than you might expect, and all of it recent. Since January 2024 Google's models have held #1 for **227 of 1003 days**, third behind OpenAI (461) and Anthropic (252). Google had no days at the top in 2024. Its first reign began on 24 Jun 2025 with gemini-2.5-pro and ran 227 days across 2 models, the longest by any lab until Anthropic's 236-day run.

Google was late to the top and lost little for it. It says the Gemini app grew from 400M monthly users (May 2025) to 950M (Jul 2026). The lesson for founders is about order of operations: a team that already owns a daily surface can afford to arrive second on quality, because the channel is waiting when the model catches up. Argon starts in the hands of a few vetted users, so for now its lead is on the board, not yet in front of customers.

> A #1 model is worth what your channel can carry.

**What we would back:** Startups that build the channel first, a daily surface or an install base, so the next good model has somewhere to go.

## Sources

- [Arena leaderboard dataset (lmarena-ai, CC BY 4.0)](https://huggingface.co/datasets/lmarena-ai/leaderboard-dataset)
- [Gemini 4 Argon announcement (Google)](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/gemini-4-argon/)
- [Company statements as reported (TechCrunch, Alphabet Q2 2026 remarks, CNBC)](https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/06/sam-altman-says-chatgpt-has-hit-800m-weekly-active-users/)